Vesak Day

Dear Margot,
Today I went fishing, but broke my rule which is "no fishing at pay ponds". I went to Pasir Ris pond instead of going to Macritchie reservoir. I figured that since it is Vesak day, many people will be releasing animals and the rangers will be out patroling full force and I do not want to get caught or anything because some of them are extremely picky about fly fishers.

Well, the trip was quite good but I think it is not as good as it was before the management changed hands. I had the honour of catching the first fish of the day which was a frisky finger mark snapper. It was about 2kg and gave a very good struggle especially on light tackle. It was also the first fish that my brand new shimano chameleon from Uncle Chee Beng hooked and landed. Coincidentally, this finger mark is the first one that I have caught for the last 6 years. The last one I caught was at the Lagoon Fishing Pond at East coast and has since Closed down.

The second fish was a red snapper that was probably pushing the 2 kg mark also. It gave a very good struggle and like the finger mark, it bent the rod well down into the middle section and took backing from my reliable Shimano Calcutta 250 reel. It was the first snapper I have caught for the last 2 years at least. I last helped to land was one when I was fishing over some deep water with Uncle Chee Beng.

It was about 15 minutes before Koon Wei and I would have to pack up and leave for home and all of a sudden, Koon Wei's reel screamed as line tore off the spool for a few split seconds. He jumped up like a cat pouncing on a mouse. He whipped the rod out of the holder at lightning speed and proceeded to enjoy the struggle the fish was going to put up. From the looks of the bend in the rod, the fish was not going to be very big. I lip gripped the fish and out came a shiny, sparkling silver coloured barramundi. We removed the hook which had been set in the corner of the mouth and took a photo.

We both enjoyed ourselves tremendously and managed to cure the itch to go fishing for a few days. Now I have a new wall paper for my computer's wallpaper. I have also started studying for my exam on wednesday and i think I will be able to do fairly Ok for the paper.

I am going to continue studying now. Good Night

Yours,
An Ren

Today was quite relaxing in the morning and tiring in the afternoon. I jumped out of bed at 530 in the morning to do something I enjoy tremendously - fishing. I went to lower pierce and after less than half an hour, my 4 weight rod broke at the ferrule. I do not know why it broke but it just cracked. In desperation, I whipped out my mobile phone and rang mum and asked her to bring my 6weight fly set for me to use.

When mum arrived, she handed me the rod and asked what happened, so i explained that i was just casting and suddenly heard a loud crack and upon inspection of my rod, it had cracked. She seems to still be upset. Maybe it is because it was the first fly rod I ever got and she bought it.

At about 8am, a storm began to brew and as it approached, Desmond and i packed our rods faster than ever before because we did not want to get struck by lightning and become Lightning Rods (a series of rods made by Berkley, a rod brand). We began to walk briskly towards the nearby bus stop at the main road and we ran the last 30 meters or so because it had begun to drizzle and it was getting heavier by the second. We stood under the shelter and watched the sky unleash its fury and it was raining cats and dogs. Lightning flashed all around us and it was comforting to know that I was not at the water's edge fishing away and risking getting struck by lightning.

Desmond and I took a bus down to Macritchie reservoir to catch lampans. Before we went to the cove to fish for the lampans. We berleyed and the lampans appeared but they refused to eat our bread flies. We eventually moved around the corner to cast at the gigantic shoal of lampans. There were so many of them, I found it difficult to see the bottom of the reservoir. I berleyed out 2 pieces of bread and cast out my fly and was rewarded by a hearty take, followed by a lost fish because I failed to set the hook properly. 2 presentations later, I was rewarded with a take, and a fish neatly hooked in the front of its mouth. I then threw out more bread and Desmond was rewarded with a hookup! we finally had a double hookup! Sheer bliss! we compared the sizes of our fish and Desmond's fish was much bigger than mine and I had the honour of releasing his fish for him. I think his fish was about 12 inches or larger. It was about the size of my largest ever lampan. Perhaps it was the same fish.

Desmond was also unlucky enough to lose his bread fly to a stupid turtle who ate it up. As a result, I gave Desmond one of my bread flies.

Essentially, that was my morning which i spent fishing. I spent my afternoon studying because exams are this week. I will sleep now becuse I have church tomorrow and I have to get up early. Most importantly, I am sleepy.

Good Night.
Yours,
An Ren

quizzie is fun!

Dear Margot,
Today is another record. It is the latest time I have ever got home after school, it was because I went for the 27th C.B. Paul math and science quiz. I enjoyed myself greatly even thought it was extremely tiring. I did not know how to do alot of the questions but used my common sense to get through them. I am glad that I got some questions correct b clarifying my answers with Dad. I was greatly to see the familiar face or Li Feng who is a friend of mine who i rarely see. I think that the people marking the papers must have had a great laugh at my script because I think most of the answers were and just wrote nonsense.

I also have tons of homework to be done. School is getting more stressful by the day but at least this will be over soon and I can have a long fishing season. I am going to do my homework now. Good Night.

Yours

An Ren

Fishing TODAY!!!

Dear Margot,
Yesterday so sucked really badly, especially the fishing because my Orvis superfine fly rod snapped due to my totally idiotic carelessness while landing a fish. I was stupid to high stick the rod resulting in the tip breaking off. I have nothing to do about it now so what I will do is send the rod back to Orvis. In the meantime, I think I will buy a spare rod to use. I cannot decide between a winston boron2x, Winston IBIS, Scott G or A2 or possibly another Orvis superfine. However, the problem is that all of the rods are extremely expensive and cost at least $300.

Today, I went fishing with Mike. We met up at the Caltex petrol station near my house. I brought alot of bread to use berley to turn the lampans to feeding mode. I casted the bread fly into the frenzy and instantly, I had a hit from this little fish. Actually, it is a very good size for an early seaon fish.

The second fish was almost the same size and put up an equally good struggle as the first one even though is was slightly smaller. It took an elk hair caddis.


I got another 6 fish following those 2 and 3 were caught on 3 consecutive casts which were all very well placed. The fish took the flies instantly and I instinctively set the hook, resulting in very clean hookups in the lips of the fish, which i find excellent for both the fish and I, because it causes mininmal holes in the fish's mouth, no blood is shed and is easy for me to remove for a quick release. I also lost a good sized toman when it took my little surface fly because it swallowed the fly into its throat and the teeth cut my leader.

This is essentially my day of fishing, excluding the comments from bozos who tried to tell me that fly fishing was disallowed in the reservoirs. It is late now so I will sleep. Good Night everyone, including the lampans!

Yours,
a happy, contented and tired

An Ren

fishing weekend

Dear Margot,
I fished yesterday, today and will fish tomorrow. Today, I fished by myself and got a luo han. Yesterday I fished with Albert, Mark and Desmond. We all enjoyed ourselves throughly even though only Desmond and I caught fish. I am extremely happy at the thought of having caught my first ever lampan on fly.

Tomorrow, I will go to macritchie again with Mike to catch more lampans. I hope I catch many of them and not many turtles. Catching turtles irritates me no end because they are a total waste of time as they do not fight at all and often do not allow me to take out the fly, resulting in me cutting off the fly.

I must get an early night tonight so I will have energy to fish tomorrow. Goodnight.

yours,
An Ren